Banner rising swamps the Kingdom

MUNSTER SHL ROUND 1

Clare 4-20 Kerry 0-12

ONLY in the GAA could your 2018 campaign get underway in 2017, but that’s the position both Kerry and Clare found themselves in on Saturday afternoon.

The game, originally due to be played in Sixmilebridge, was shifted at near the last minute to the LIT grounds in the shadow of Thomond Park. As it turned out the concession of home advantage to a neutral venue made no difference whatsoever to a Clare team out to make an early statement of intent.

It was always likely to prove a difficult start to the season – if not the year! – for Fintan O’Connor and his Kerry side. It’s not like they would have expected anything easy from Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor’s men.

In the end it was an even more comprehensive victory for the Banner man than even they would have expected. As a matter of fact it turned out to be the new management duo’s biggest victory as joint-managers of the senior side.

An experimental Kerry side was given an early reality check as to where they stand in the pecking order. It was all so different from the game these two counties played in last year’s competition.

That day Clare met a stubborn Kerry defensive unit before finally pulling away to win by twelve in Austin Stack Park for what was the first competitive outing for Clare’s new managerial duo.

This time, the result was never in any doubt as a hungrier, slicker Clare worked extremely hard and were rewarded on the scoreboard with first half goals through David Reidy, Cathal O’Connell and Shane O’Donnell before a clincher from substitute Bobby Duggan powered them 23 points clear by the turn of the final quarter.

Niall Deasy got the Banner up and running with an eye-catching brace of opening points from either wing before the Kilmaley man again initiated the move for Clare’s opening goal in the third minute that Shane O’Donnell collected and offloaded to the overlapping Reidy to billow the net. Reidy followed up with a point before Kerry finally got off the mark through captain Pádraig Boyle in the ninth minute.

However, gathering momentum, a much more flowing Clare hammered home their crisper passing with further points from Reidy (2), Deasy and Cathal Malone to lead by 1-7 to 0-2 by the end of the opening quarter.

Kerry’s best chance of a reprieve arrived in the 20th minute when Kerry debutant Shane Conway cut in from the left wing only to see his scrambled shot repelled by Donal Tuohy.

In truth though, with nine first half wides amidst a tricky crossfield breeze, Kerry needed to take every chance if they were to make this a contest but instead, a more clinical Clare would be the ones to finish the half on the front foot by outscoring the visitors by 2-4 to 0-3 for the remainder.

Shane O’Donnell, Cathal O’Connell, Ryan Taylor and John Conlon picked off points while O’Donnell was pivotal to both goals as first he teed up O’Connell in the 30th minute before getting one himself five minutes later.

David Reidy’s persistence epitomised Clare’s superior workrate for Clare’s third goal as he smothered Jason Diggins on three occasions before picking his pocket and delivering for his Éire Óg club-mate to find the net.

And John Conlon might have even added a fourth goal in the next passage of play after collecting a Cathal O’Connell delivery only for his pull to be blocked by goalkeeper Martin Stackpoole at 3-11 to 0-05.

And there would be no let up for Kerry as despite seeing experienced trio O’Donnell, O’Connell and Conlon being withdrawn at the break, their replacements proved just as potent in a dominant third quarter.

Debutants Colin Guilfoyle (3) and Daragh Corry (2) stretched Clare’s lead even further before Bobby Duggan inflicted the final hammer blow with an opportunistic quickfire 1-1 by the 52nd minute at 4-16 to 0-06.

Kerry admirably never dropped their heads and would lessen the damage in the final minutes with four of the last five points, all from the stick of Shane Nolan as Clare finished the tie with only fourteen men when Cooney succumbed to an injury after all their substitutions were used.

However, while this was little more than a challenge match, in terms of exorcising the ghosts of a first competitive win in seven months and assembling their squad thanks to ten different scorers, Clare couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to the 2018 season.

For Kerry it shows there’s much work to be done to get to the level of these top ranked sides.

CLARE: Donal Tuohy, Jack Browne, Conor Cleary, Rory Hayes, Mikey O’Malley, David McInerney , Diarmuid Ryan, David Reidy (1-3), Ryan Taylor (0-2), John Conlon (0-1), Cathal Malone (0-1), Niall Deasy (0-5, 1f); Gary Cooney, Shane O’Donnell (1-1), Cathal O’Connell (1-1) Subs: Bobby Duggan (1-1) for O’Connell, half-time,, Daragh Corry (0-2) for O’Donnell, half-time, Colin Guilfoyle (0-3) for Conlon, half-time, Mikey O’Neill for Malone, 47, Oisin O’Brien for Ryan, 51

KERRY: Martin Stackpoole, Jordan Conway, Sean Weir, Niall O’Mahony, Dougie Fitzell, Brendan O’Leary, Jason Diggins, Shane Nolan (0-7, 5f, 1’65), Daithi Griffin (0-2), Jack Goulding, Daniel Collins (0-2 1f), Colum Harty, Padraig Boyle (0-1), Brandon Barrett, Shane Conway Subs: Philip Lucid for Harty, half-time, Maurice O’Connor for Goulding, half-time, Daniel Carroll for S Conway, 48, John Buckley for Diggins, 48, Evan Murphy for Boyle, 60

REFEREE: Johnny Murphy (Limerick)